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By Debbie Schlussel
Tonight at sundown is the start of one of the most important Jewish holidays of the year, Rosh HaShanah, the New Year. To my Jewish friends and readers, I wish you a Happy and Healthy New Year. Thanks to all of my readers who sent me e-mails and i- and e-cards wishing me a Happy New Year. Right Back at Ya!

Jews Eat Apples & Honey on Rosh HaShanah

To all of my readers, I will be out of blog commission for the next two days (Tuesday & Wednesday), in observance of the holiday. However, I’ll try to post more today, time-permitting, and try to have some things for my webmaster to post in my absence. If not, see ya on Thursday.
A little bit about the Jewish New Year excerpted from my post on this in a previous year. My prayers will be the same as they were then, and I will remember my beloved father, H.L. Schlussel, MD, who died on the first day of Rosh HaShanah, last year (hard to believe it’s been a year):

It is the start of the Aseret Yemay Tshuvah–the Ten Days of Repentance–during which our fate, healthwise, financially, etc.–is decreed in the Book of Life for the next year by G-d. . . .

Man Blowing Sounds Out of the Shofar

On Rosh HaShanah, a two day holiday, we pray in synagogue for a good new year of peace, health, and prosperity for ourselves, our people, and the safety of our country, the USA, which has brought us such great opportunity to live in peace and freedom. We also pray for peace in Israel, America’s most loyal ally and the only democracy in the Middle East, too. Unlike in many of America’s (and the world’s) mosques–where hatred of America, Christians, and Jews is the order of the day in sermons, prayers, the Koran, and the Hadiths–there isn’t a single prayer we have that mentions Islam or Muslims.
Given the recent escalation in Islamic intolerance and violence, we also hope that, while we are praying and not bothering anyone, our synagogues are secure from all of those “lone,” “mentally disturbed,” “non-terror related” Muslims who attack Jewish institutions, when they know there will be a large gathering of Jews. We know that in this country–where after 9/11 the Justice Dept. started a special program devoted only to Justice for Muslims and Arabs–authorities aren’t really paying too much attention to the safety and civil rights of Christians and Jews.
I will be praying that our government is restored to people in touch with the real world, that the PC forces running the Depts. of Justice and Homeland Security, the FBI and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) will be replaced with common-sense law enforcement officials who care about justice, safety, and security of America, who care about protecting our borders and stopping the malefactors already inside the gate. I’ll be praying for the end to PC movies and TV shows painting Jews and Christians as the villains and extremist Muslims who support terrorism as kind, nice victims of prejudice. Those are just some of the things I’ll be praying for.
On Rosh HaShanah, we also hear hundreds of noises blown from a ram’s horn known as a shofar (can be the horn of certain other animals, too). The shofar is one of the most prominent symbols in Judaism. It’s used like a trumpet, takes a special skill to use, and is the horn that was blown by Israeli Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren when the Western Wall in Jerusalem was liberated from Islamists in 1967. Its sounds symbolize alarm and justice, among many other things.
On the holiday, we also eat apples with honey on top, to symbolize the sweet year that we hope to attain from G-d. My favorite are MacIntosh apples.

Debbie,
Shanna Tova to you and your family.
You’re too tough on Sarah. If she’s good enough to have an 80% approval rating as Governor of Alaska, by definition, she’s more qualified than Barack Obama.
So we trust in her conservative VALUES, her ability to value a democracy and ally like Israel, and her ability to snub Iran’s pro-terrorist theocracy. So yes, it DOESN’T take a Harvard Law student to make a leader; it takes someone with the right values.
It’s either that or YOU run for VP Debbie!!
Hag Sameach!

Happy New Year, Debbie!
I lived next door to a synagogue up until I was 7 or 8 years old. I clearly remember ‘Mr. Rabbi’ asking me to come inside every now & then to switch on certain lights. The switchplate had a LOT of switches, and he’d point and say: “This one….and this one…..no, not that one…and this one….” He’d look around to see which lights came on, and then he’d say: “No. Turn that one off….” When I asked him why he just didn’t do it himself, he explained that he couldn’t because of his holiday. That was fine with me because he always rewarded me with a handful of pennies…..which I spent on a bag of candy. He was a great guy and he and his family were really nice people. Their name was Gottesman, and I’d love to track them down and say hello. I was just a little boy, and I didn’t realize that he was a ‘rabbi’. I thought that was his last name!!!

Jesus was likely born on Rosh Hashana and the second coming will be announced with the Shofar (trumpet) blasts on the final Rosh Hashana.
So at Rosh Hashana we fundamentalist Christians focus on forgiveness and grace from God to us and from us to others. We pray for the Hebrews because our Bible (every word of it) has come from them (not a Baptist among them). (BIBLE = Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth)